U.S. men down Spain in quarterfinals

ATHENS, Greece — Larry Brown was right. The Americans did start hitting their jump shots, and suddenly they look as if they might be the team to beat at the Athens Games.

Stephon Marbury broke the U.S. men's Olympic record with 31 points, helping to beat Spain 102-94 in the quarterfinals Thursday and transform a team that had spent the first 1 1/2 weeks missing jumpers.

"Stephon shot the ball like Stephon today," Lamar Odom said.

After spending 90 minutes working on his shot on the team's day off, Marbury made six of his team's 12 3-pointers and was a big reason the previously undefeated Spaniards are now out of medal contention. They weren't happy about it.

As the teams left the court, Spanish coach Mario Pesquera and Brown yelled and pointed at each other about a late U.S. timeout, and they had to be separated by their assistants.

In the U.S. team's first five games, Marbury scored just 21 points, missing 24 of 30 shots. The Americans lost two of those games: an embarrassing blowout to Puerto Rico to open the Olympics and against Lithuania in the final seconds.

Against Spain, Marbury played spectacularly, and the Americans finally resembled U.S. teams from the past three Olympics — not letting a large foul disparity rattle them, knocking down their free throws and surpassing 100 points for the first at these games.

"We've been playing against so much zone, it doesn't really matter anymore," Marbury said. "We're starting to like playing against zones."

The Americans were 12-for-22 on 3-pointers after shooting a tournament-low 24 percent in their first five games. Brown, though, had insisted for the past week that it was just a matter of time before the Americans started hitting their shots.

"They were very good on 3s. That was something new in this tournament," Spain's Pau Gasol said. "They looked motivated, and it'll be hard to beat them if they keep playing like that."

Marbury's six 3s broke the U.S. record of five set by Reggie Miller against China in 1996, and his scoring total passed the mark of 30 points shared by Charles Barkley (1992 vs. Brazil) and Adrian Dantley (1976 vs. Yugoslavia). Lisa Leslie holds the overall U.S Olympic record with 35 points (1996 vs. Japan).

Allen Iverson added 16 points, Carlos Boozer had 12 and Lamar Odom 11 for the Americans, who advanced to the semifinals against the winner of the Argentina-Greece game.